Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Sri Lanka / United Kingdom

British Candidate Calls Tamils Victims of Genocide
TamilNet, April 27, 2010
"Dr. Rachel Joyce, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, Harrow West, UK, in a statement circulated to her constituents, said she believes that since Sri Lanka's independence 'the acts perpetrated the Government of Sri Lanka on Tamils including the burning down of Jaffna library ... disappearance of Tamil individuals ... and the use of concentration-style camps for internally displaced Tamils should be classed as Genocide.' Dr. Joyce further made a campaign promise to 'work with the Tamils to get the acts perpetrated on the Tamils classed legally as a genocide so that the UN Convention can be used to address the problems.' The text of Dr Joyce's full statement follows: 'Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. A legal definition is found in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG). ... I believe that since independence the acts perpetrated by the Government of Sri Lanka on the Tamils including the burning down of the Jaffna Library, the refusal to act on the Vattakottai resolution, disappearances of Tamil individuals, refusal to allow Tamil to be an official language of Sri Lanka, firing on the so-called 'safe zone,' the relocation of Tamils and moving in of Sinhalese into traditional Tamil areas, and the use of concentration-style camps for internally displaced Tamils should be classed as Genocide. I will work with the Tamils to get the acts perpetrated on the Tamils classed legally as a genocide so that the UN Convention can be used to address the problems.Dr. Rachel Joyce, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, Harrow West' Ms. Jan Jananayagam, British representative of US-based group 'Tamils Against Genocide (TAG)' ... commenting on Dr Joyce's statement, said: 'Those of us who have been working towards legal recognition of Sri Lanka’s genocide are delighted by Dr. Rachel Joyce's unequivocal pledge of support. ... While none of the British political parties has reached an official party position on Sri Lanka genocide, its heartening that individual politicians such as Dr Joyce are taking a clear stand on the issue. It is not possible to over emphasise the importance of international political will in bringing about recognition of, and redress for, genocide of the Tamils.' [...]"

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